


Ignorance Is Bliss

by Aduuuh



Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: F/M, Out of Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-05-20 12:47:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19377016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aduuuh/pseuds/Aduuuh
Summary: canon's finished. that means it's time to rip the series at least five new ones, turn it inside out n upside down, and warp everything almost beyond recognitionnow's a great time to play bitches. let your self indulgence flow





	1. Dreams

The world around him was oddly fluid, pressing against him gently as he tried to move. The strange little blue man was slowly rotating, a smug smile gracing his lips, as the... lesson? started. He was sure it was a lesson somehow, though he didn’t know why.

"Milady. How do you prefer to proceed?"

"What? Why milady? Proceed with what? What am I here to learn?"

"Because 'the correct form of address - '"

Marco spoke over him. " _How_ is it the correct form of -"

" _Rude_. Never _mind_ then; how do you like to lear -"

"Just give it to me straight!"

“Alright, princess, magic is like.... your emotions. It ebbs and flows, appears from apparently nothing and disappears into nothing, and can build upon itself to dizzying heights.”

“Magic isn’t real. What’s going _on_? And why are we floating?”

The smile fell. “Shut your puddinghole, this is important. Magic is, fundamentally, growth and decay. It arises -”

“Seriously, where the hell are we?”

The blue man rolls his eyes, and halts upside-down. Thankfully, his clothes remain in place. “Ugh. You’re gonna be a difficult one. Of course. I never get the simple cases.”

“A difficult what? Why aren’t you answering anything?”

“Princess, of course. I thought you’d be easier than my other charge, but. Ugh.”

“Dude, I’m a dude. What’s going _on_?”

“This is your first lesson, _dude_. Now, magic arises from nothing, and -”

“Lessons about magic? Jeez, what a weird dream.”

“I would have said annoying, but this is the only way we can talk for now. Magic arises and passes away from and into nothing and is fundamentally spontaneous -”

“Wait, what happens in a few days??”

“Okay, that’s enough interruptions.” He waved his hand, and a Marco found his lips suddenly stuck together.

But he wanted to talk, and the floaty feelings sharpened into clarity, carving empty channels through his brain to his nose, and his thoughts followed through them in a golden rush. ”Who ARE you? What’s in a few days? Why are you giving m-””

“Yes, yes. Very impressive. Calm down and shut _up_ for a moment.” Marco felt a pressure around his thoughts, and gradually the floaty feeling grew. The world made perfect sense again as the blue man stretched in midair.

Marco floated.

“Magic is, at its core... the import of this is that...”

His voice trailed off into meaningless noise. Marco’s arms were floating. He wasn’t trying to move them, yet they were swaying gently.

Time passed.

“Marco, aren’t you going to interrupt or something?”

He wasn’t sure he remembered how to talk. He could move his arms, though, and he shook them around wildly, just because he could.

“Seriously? Not even one question for lil’ ol’ me? This is some pretty heavy stuff here. Real turn your world upside-down shit.”

He was staring up at the bottom of a pool, but he could breathe. It was so peaceful.

“Ugh. Mortals. My fault, I guess... Look, this is a dream, princess. A dream? Do you remember what that is?”

What the _fuck._

“What did you just do to me? That was so rude.”

“You’re one to talk. Really, why am I even teaching you this early? We may as well do this after we meet...” His colors faded to blackness, and Marco was suddenly rushing towards the surface.

“No, wait-!”

The surface suddenly moved with him, waves rushing towards where he would breach, and he was in a bubble of water flying between the stars.

The little blue man was back. Thank God.

“Oh, very well. I’ll answer three questions of your choice. The important stuff can wait.”

“Uh....”

He pulled out a nail file bigger than himself and began rubbing it vertically against his... gem? He had a pink gem embedded in his forehead. The nail file was large enough to cover one of his eyes as he used it, and he went at his gem with gusto. With vim and vigor. With the kind of enthusiasm usually reserved for particularly enjoyable forms of sex.

Marco felt dirty just seeing it.

“Well... what’s happening in a few days?”

“Monday will be the most important day of your life.”

“...Okay, but that doesn’t answer the question.”

He put the nail file down, and leaned backwards in the water. “On Monday, you will meet proof that magic exists.”

“And we’ll talk again after that?”

“So long as you don’t mess anything up too much, yes. Don’t worry, you basically can’t. She’s very friendly. But don’t mess up. The multiverse depends on it. Or at least the universe.”

“Wait, the multiverse depends on what happens Monday??”

“Would you look at the time. Gotta go!”

“That was only two questions, you _dick_!”

An IOU note fluttered from the empty space he disappeared from.

Marco woke, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, to a bright Saturday morning.

What the hell was all that? It wasn’t fading like a normal dream, either. He could remember everything with a clarity he was entirely unused to, to the extent that he could recite it from memory if asked.

Two days to the most important day of his life. Apparently.

Saturday seemed almost a blur - half the morning was spent anticipating whatever would happen Monday. What the hell could possibly happen to prove magic real? Why did the multiverse depend on him? What was all that bullshit about magic in the first place?

Why was he trusting an absurd dream at all?

The show he was watching was in a fight scene, and he realized he hadn’t paid attention to half the episode. He’d have to rewatch it later, when he wasn’t so distracted - he had no idea what had just happened.

Maybe tomorrow morning would feel normal again.

...But it wasn’t. He still remembered the dream in perfect clarity. Still remembered the way the blue man was comfortable defying gravity, still remembered the...prophecy? or whatever it was, and still remembered the partial lecture he had apparently been there for.

(He still remembered being called princess.)

He ended up with a notebook, taking notes on what he'd heard as if he would be tested on it later. What if he was? Blue had said the multiverse depended on tomorrow. The memory of the dream might fade. He needed to be _prepared_. To be ready for whatever might happen.

He was going to meet someone. A girl. A woman? Blue hadn’t said. She would be proof that magic existed, and he needed to not fuck up their meeting. Was he important? Was she?

It was probably her that was important. He was just another guy. Did Blue need him to teach her what he taught him, maybe? Except Blue had said he had “another charge.” That practically had to be her, so why not teach her himself?

...There was nothing to do but wait. And worry.

God, what was going to happen tomorrow??

He should do _something_. He was going to go crazy obsessing. So he went down to eat breakfast.

But even while aimlessly spooning cereal into his face, he couldn't stop thinking about it.

Okay, if magic was real, or became real, or made itself and other things real, or - whatever, how did you use it? He concentrated, envisioning levitating his cereal box with his mind, but it remained stubbornly affected by gravity. He envisioned having a donut. He could almost taste the glaze, the warm squishy feeling of it in his hand.

No donut appeared, but now he really wanted a donut. Time for a walk. The good-ol’-fashioned way would be necessary.

So, even if magic was real, he obviously couldn’t use it. Wasn’t happening. No free donuts, or telekinesis, or anything weird and wild. Not from him. He was perfectly normal.

... He was the Safe Kid. Ugh. At least that might change tomorrow?

He kicked a rock in his way, petulant. Shouldn’t he be able to change that himself?

“Hey, Marco! What’s hanging?”

His head whipped around to stare at Jackie. Her short blond tresses swayed gently in the wind her speed created, the turquoise streak dancing back and forth. She was mesmerizing...

Wait, that was _Jackie._ Holy shit. She just said hi! Say hi back! “Uh, hey! Just, uh, thinking about a dream I had, I guess.”

She pulled up and kicked her skateboard up to walk smoothly next to him.

Wow, this was going really well. This was, like, at least step twelve in his grand plan; a bunch of steps were getting mown over.

“Where you headed? Bit early for lunch, but I wouldn’t mind joining you.”

Her eyes almost seemed to sparkle as she grinned at him. They were such a pretty color... he could see flecks of deeper green in the blue-green mix.

“Hey, Earth to Marco? You okay if I join you?”

His dopey grin fell as he woke from the daze. “Y-Yeah, of course. I was gonna get some donuts, actually. Got a craving. You know how that is? Where you, like, try to make a donut out of nothing, and you end up thinking really hard about donuts, and then you really really want a donut, but you still don’t have a...” He trailed off. That was weird, right? That felt weird. Jackie seemed unfazed, though, just calmly smiling at him.

“I definitely want a donut now. C’mon. We’re headed for Britta’s Donuts, then, right?”

He relaxed a little. The stakes were low, he reminded himself - she probably still had a boyfriend anyway, given her popularity over the last three years. If he could just be friends with her, without being awkward and nervous all the time, he might be able to handle asking her out once she was single.

She was so _pretty_.

“Yeah. Closest place, even if they’re not great donuts.”

“I hear you there. Just gotta get your fix sometimes.”

They walk for a while in companionable silence - at least for Jackie. She was too calm to worry over pauses in conversations. Marco was busy cycling between enjoying the walk and freaking the fuck out over walking next to Jackie.

Wait what if Jackie was magic what if Jackie was magic what if what if what if

That would be _so cool_

“You’re not magic, are you?” he blurts out. Instant regret.

“Hah, no, but Janna might be a little? She’s way into that witch stuff, at least. The Dark Arts especially. Like, demon summoning and all that.”

“Wait, so you believe in magic?”

“It’s not so much belief as... openness to the idea? I mean, I’ve never done magic, but Janna says some of her stuff works. None of the stuff we tried together has worked so far, but I trust her, and why not? The world’s a crazy place.”

“I’m starting to be more open to it myself. I think. I haven’t decided yet, I guess.”

“Yeah? Did something change your mind? Didja do a little magic by accident?”

“I... had a really weird dream Saturday morning. As in, _really_ weird. I can remember the whole thing perfectly, word for word, and a little blue man tried to give me a lesson about magic in it. And he said I’d meet proof tomorrow, and that she was friendly, and that I shouldn’t fuck up because the multiverse happens to depend on tomorrow, and I’m _so confused_ right now.”

“Woah, right on, dude. Did he tell you her name? I mean, do you know Janna already, because she can get pretty friendly.”

“No, I don’t think I’ve met her. Is meeting her likely to be ‘the most important day of my life’?”

“Eh, actually, nah. She’s cool, but she usually gets bored with people pretty quick. She likes to figure out how people work, and drops people like rocks once she doesn’t think you’re interesting anymore. Dunno why she likes to hang out with me after all this time, but maybe I’m still interesting even after she ‘solved’ me, or whatever.”

“I think you’re still interesting!”

“Thanks, my dude. But this whole dream thing sounds like a whole deal right now. Anything I can do to help?”

They walked straight up to the counter - no line when half the town was at church. “You’re helping a lot already. I needed to vent a little, I guess.”

“Hey, keep venting, then. I’ll buy you the donuts to go with it. Yo, can we get a half-dozen?”

“...Really? Uh, thanks. That’d be great, honestly, because he also kept calling me princess, which was weird in ways I don’t even know how to _describe_ -”

Jackie burst out laughing. “I can’t even imagine you as a girl right now, dude. You’re pretty buff. It’s from the karate, right?”

“Uh... yeah. I’ve done martial arts for ten years now. I’m past red belt by now, even.”

Jackie’s eyes were sparkling again. It was hard to look away, even to focus on eating his (awesome) donut.

“Well, listen, you ever want a princess dress, I’ll help you find one in your size. The world could use more buff princesses, y’know?”

Marco blinked. She seemed so _casual_ about the whole thing, as if it could actually happen. She wasn’t laughing anymore, either. Smiling, but she seemed like she meant it.

“Sure, I’ll go straight to you, I guess.”

“Awesome. Don’t worry, I’d set you up good. Coral is definitely your color.”

“I mean. Thank you?”

“It’s all about your skin tone, dude. You’ve got pretty warm undertones, so you can go for corals, red, orange, yellow... and some other stuff like that. Don’t worry, you’re already flattering yourself color-wise with that hoodie you like so much. Go ahead and trust your instincts!”

She shot him a wink. His insides were doing the sweetest of kickflips, suddenly. His face felt so much hotter than it should, the world almost seemed to be singing -

He hesitated, unsure of what his instincts even were, and the moment passed. He stuffed the rest of his donut into his face to excuse his sudden silence.

She had still been flirting. His face was still, he could feel, red to match his hoodie. This was progress. Nothing he had caused, necessarily, but progress. He’d need to revise his plan later. Everything was out of order, now. She had said to trust his instincts, which sounded like a one-step plan that he had absolutely no idea how to follow. He hadn't chosen his hoodie's color by accident in the first place!

...Compliment her back! That was step 17. He could just jump around, or something. He swallowed, plan ready.

“I should definitely trust you on that. Your clothes look good on you, after all.” He shot her double pistols and a failed wink, and finished it off with a chk-chk noise.

She started giggling. “Wow, that was the dorkiest thing I’ve ever seen. You gotta keep one eye open to wink right. Watch closely now.” She winked slowly, stretching her mouth and eyebrows apart from her eyes.

“Pshhh, you knew I was winking. I don’t need to make my face all... whatever that was.” Weird. Cute. Uncool, except that she could do it so casually.

“If you say so~” She’d finished her donut by now, and stood up, adjusting her helmet. “Listen, I’m gonna get back to the skate park. Got some air to catch.”

“Uh, thanks for the help! I really appreciate it. See you later?”

“You know it. You’re a pretty cool dude, y’know.”

Marco was a little dazed as he watched her speed quickly off. He’d almost been smooth, for once. He might’ve even gotten away with the weird donut-pause. And she’d _definitely_ flirted with him, he was pretty sure.

...Cool.

He went through the rest of his day half-dazed, daydreaming about Jackie as he worked through his homework, watched TV, and looked up color matching for a while. He’d never paid much attention to his clothes, just wearing his red hoodies and not really thinking about options.

It wasn’t until he was laying down to sleep that he remembered, sending a jolt through him.

He’d even talked about the dream with Jackie, and yet he’d forgotten! He’d not dreamed last night, but Blue could still show up again, and he wanted to be prepared.

He fetched the journal he’d written down the dream in, sorting out what questions he most needed to ask. Why were Monday and his actions so important to the multiverse? Why multiverse and not universe, for that matter? Why _him_ , when skill-wise there were probably many others better suited to whatever the multiverse needed?

(Why was Blue calling him a princess?)

He finished up his note-taking, glad he hadn’t had to obsess over this all day. Jackie had let him relax for a while, and he was prepared anyway, or as much as he could be with so little information. He laid down, satisfied  with his preparations, and closed his eyes to sleep.

Tomorrow would be the most important day of his life.

And he already believed, didn’t he?

He found himself floating again, Blue over to his right, and focused on remembering the questions he’d had. He’d made a short list...

His journal popped into his hand as Blue snapped his fingers. “Let’s get on with this, princess. You’ve had some time to think, and I don’t want to be here for long.”

He flipped through to the right page... “Why are Monday and my actions so important to-”

“Pure. Random. Chance. Or so I would have thought, but because of how stable time loops work, even I’m not sure exactly. It’s fate or destiny at this point, though - my fault, really, I should know better than to skip ahead by now.” He was examining his fingernails as if they were the most important thing in the world - or perhaps the multiverse.

“Oh... Why do you keep saying multiverse and not universe? Are there parallel worlds?”

“No, there aren’t parallel worlds in the sense you mean. However, the multiverse is made up of many dimensions, separate universes that are often radically different from each other. You won’t find any that are close enough to Earth to meet another Marco, or even other humans.”

“Woah......”

“Yes, yes. Soak it in, you only get to learn this once. Without amnesia, I suppose, but then you don’t remember learning it the first time. Usually.”

“Why am I part of this fate or whatever when I can’t possibly be the best suited for whatever this is?”

“As far as I know, you’re just the right kid at the right time. You go to the desired school, you’re the right age. Your family is accustomed to exchange students. You know karate, and you can protect yourself and others, so that caused the Queen’s initial decision. Though her biggest reason...”

He glanced toward Marco smirking the smuggest of smirks. “You’re the Safe Kid.”

Marco facepalmed. That was from freshman year, and it was still following him around? Even past the school to magical beings?

“Face it, you’re always the man with a plan, princess. You dodge danger like second nature, and the Queen thinks you’re gonna need that skill, especially when from this dimension and near this girl. She isn’t safe, and she doesn’t want to be.

“Those are the reasons the Queen chose you. You probably won’t die, and you’re protective enough that you won’t let her daughter die. Also, like I mentioned, I may have accidentally initiated a stable time loop, so if you do the wrong thing your dimension will temporally implode. This would all have much lower stakes if I hadn’t decided to peek. Really, you’re important because of her and the time loop that needs to be fulfilled, not in and of yourself. Hope that’s not too much of a disappointment, princess.”

“Wait, so it’s important because of some time loop you made?”

"I literally just said that. Stupid question stupid people blah blah blah."

“What do I even need to do for the time loop?”

“A good question! I don’t know for sure and even if I did it would probably be a bad idea to tell you. Just accept the job and don’t let either of you die, probably. The rest will work itself out; it usually does. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.”

“...That’s it? No other advice?”

“Alright, let’s wrap this up. I need my sleep, big day tomorrow, you know how it is.”

“Wait, before you go, just one more. Look, I have your IOU. Why do you keep calling me princess?”

“Oh, you... never mind about that, actually, my mistake. Didn’t mean to mess with the time stream that way, don’t want to cause the temporal implosion and all that. Unless this was necessary? Time loops are stupid, and you should write that down in your little journal tomorrow. You said you liked to be called dude, or whatever?”

“...You could just call me Marco? You know, my _name?_ ”

“Sure, _Marco_. No, actually, that won’t work for me. I don’t like you yet, even if I’ll like you later. How about Earth Turd? Now there’s a fine name.”

Marco sighed, rolling his eyes. “Call me whatever, then. Princess is better than stinkbrain, or anything else it sounds like you’re going to use.”

“Greaaaaaaat! Glad we could sort that out.”

Blue smiled and shoved himself into his mouth from the feet up, curving in ways his bones shouldn’t allow and disappearing to nothing in a motion that Marco didn’t quite see. Did he even have bones?

A drop of liquid light, colored honey-golden, blossomed in the point he disappeared into. The surface seethed as it grew gradually, and Marco watched it in curiosity. At around basketball size, the roiling increased to tendrils that pressed out of the sphere, splitting themselves into branches upon branches.

They grew to swiftly overtake his surroundings, carpeting him like a second skin as they did so. He felt as if he were made of paper next to them, but they didn’t hurt him. The tendrils radiated gentle strength over and through his body, pulsing ever higher with energy and light and life, until it had grown too bright to continue staring at. His eyes watered with pain, squinting and closing without his permission, despite his desire to soak in the light. His heart lifted as it bathed him in sweetness, feeling a vast space inside him which seemed to dwarf it, and yet it seemed to expand further with the sensations.

Was this magic?

The light soon shone even through his eyelids. Just as his eyes began to hurt again, darkness fell, and he opened them to see the ceiling of his room. He could still feel some of the energy, though, swelling and fading, apparently randomly, inside the vast void within.

It felt like noticing a limb he hadn't realized he had. It felt like the empty calmness he sometimes felt during karate, but with a far greater feeling of movement, as if he could sprint or dance or fly around the globe. It felt as if he needed to do... something. Anything.

“Wait. You never answered my last question. Again.”

The same IOU he had received in the first dream floated onto his face from nowhere as he said it.

It was Monday.


	2. Connection

“Marco Diaz, please come to the Principal’s Office. Repeat, Marco Diaz to the Principal’s Office.”

Okay, that wasn’t normal. He’d been antsy all day, rushing between classes to exorcise his need to  _ move.  _ He was watching for any new girls that might be the one he was supposed to make friends with, but none that he’d seen seemed particularly special. It might’ve helped if he had thought to ask what he needed to look for...

The Principal was calling him. Backpack? Yeah, just in case. He hurried out of the classroom, trying to move quickly.

He came upon them just walking out of the office, the Principal staring at... were those  _ real gold? _

Principal Skeeves slammed shut the chest brimming with gold coins and large jewels as he approached. “Marco! This is Star Butterfly, our newest foreign exchange student!”

Ohhhhhhh boy. This definitely wasn’t going to be a one-day thing.

The girl - Star - was bouncing, almost dancing in place, with a huge grin, like she couldn’t wait to get to class. She really must be from another dimension to be that happy about school. Sure, it was important - rarely - but it didn’t exactly lend itself to a fun time either way.

She definitely looked friendly, at least. Blue had said that would make it harder to fuck things up, assuming this was the girl.

His thoughts were interrupted. “Now, Marco, I’m sure you remember how this goes. We’ll be depending on you as the Safe Kid to help show her around, so I thought you should give her a tour immediately!"

"We've gone over this, sir. Misunderstood bad boy. Not Safe Kid." The principal gave no indication of listening.

"Your family has already agreed to house her for the given time period, with what I am told is, ahem,  _ very _ appropriate compensation, so it’s best you start to get along now! Here’s her locker combination - don’t peek - with the number on the front.  _ I’m _ off to the ice cream shop!”

Marco gave his best welcoming smile to Star, and started walking with her to her locker - it was fairly close to his, like all the exchange students. He should treat her as just another of those, right now, and getting along with her would be best for both of them no matter what. “It’s nice to meet you, Star. I’m Marco. Where are you from?”

She had been rotating her head wildly, looking at apparently random things - spots on the wall, the different signs, and the ceiling and floor. When she heard his voice, her head and eyes instantly snapped back to his, grin widening impossibly further. “I’m from Mewni! Earth looks reeeeeeeally interesting, though! What’s  _ that _ ?”

Okay. Mewni is her dimension, or world. He’s not ruling out space alien yet, though.

“It’s a water fountain. You press here, and water comes out, so you can drink. Watch.” He demonstrates, feeling a little silly.

She gasped, clapping her hands to her cheeks. “It’s like the lights! How do you make magic items without any magic?? I was told Earth didn’t have magic, but I was really surprised when they were  _ right _ , except that you have all these things that work  _ anyway _ !”

He leaned back up again, trying to get a closer look at her without being creepy and staring, while he talked on autopilot, or tried to. She was from another dimension, so she should look different, right?

“Uh, we - well, humans work together. We figure out how stuff works. That lets us build things to do what we want. Like, uh, tools. And things. Wheels were early. Because it’s easy to roll them across flat surfaces, I guess? Except lights are complicated, and I don’t fully understand them. I guess you might say a human figured out how to harness lightning without magic... and then stored it to light up rooms where and when we want? But we have to put stuff in the right places.”

She seemed like she was glowing, like her emotions could press on the world around her. It felt like some extroverts Marco had met, where they took up more space in the room than other people, somehow, except it fluctuated between strong and weak, sometimes making her nearly unnoticeable. She seemed to press on the world a lot more often than... pull? on it, which made her hard to ignore.

And she moved differently than most untrained humans - gracefully and smoothly sometimes, mixed with sudden, jerky motions. Did she have martial arts training? That might explain the grace, if not the inconsistency of it. She never stopped moving, either, or at least it seemed that way.

He wasn’t sure she had bones either, suddenly, because the curve of her elbow was sometimes a  _ curve _ instead of a sharp bend. Blue had been able to bend weirdly too. Was she just pretending to have the same skeletal system?

It was incredibly unnerving in the subtle ways it failed, so he... appreciated the attempt? Something to ask about later, just in case his assumption was wrong.

She was making glittery eyes at him, biting her lip in some combination of glee and awe. “It’s just so  _ amazing _ a primitive dimension like this has  _ anything _ like that. That fountain would have  _ freaked me out _ if you hadn’t warned me first. It's all  _ stuff; _ it isn’t supposed to  _ do _ things like this when there’s no magic in it.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Primitive, huh? We’ll just see about  _ that _ .”

Her hands started flailing wildly, her eyes wide. “Sorry! I just meant! I mean, you seem to have almost no magic. Most dimensions with this little magic don’t even support proper sentients, much less  _ magic items _ ! Your dimension is  _ weird _ , honestly. I haven’t seen anywhere like it before.”

Marco let go of the annoyance to chuckle at her panic. “It’s alright; I’m not really mad, and I know this place is new for you. Just try not to make snap judgements about us, okay? I think some of our, heh, magic items will be pretty impressive.” Phones would probably make her freak out even more than plumbing and lights did. Or the Internet.

“Yeahhhhh, okay.”

Marco stopped in front of her locker. “Okay, uh... you don’t mind if I know your locker combo, do you? Teaching you this will be way easier if you can watch me do it.”

“Sure, why would I mind? And what’s a locker combo?”

“This is your locker; it’s a space at school where you can put your stuff. The combo is the numbers you need to unlock this lock to open it.” He held up the lock, showing her how the center wheel with numbers on it spun around.

“Pfft, don’t be silly! Step aside and let momma show you how it’s  _ done.  _ Let’s see, how should it go...”

He moved several steps back, suddenly nervous for reasons he couldn’t define. She pulled from her pocket some kind of toy, posing with it, and the vibrancy around her increased massively, along with the intense glare she now leveled on the lock in front of her. “Magical Unlocking Mystery Blast!”

Oh boy.

A stream of bright yellow fire poured forth from what had to be her wand, enveloping the lock and spreading out over at least ten of the surrounding lockers - including Marco’s own. All the metal that it touched began to sag, and the ceiling above the locker sprang into red flames instantly. The wave of heat rolled over him, uncomfortably warm.

Marco stared at the magically induced chaos in horror, remembering suddenly what Blue had said.

She wasn’t safe, and she didn’t want to be.

“Ah, shit. Don’t worry, I’ve gotten  _ really good _ at certain ice spells!”

She waved the (magic!) wand carelessly, and ice sprang from nowhere to cover the flames in a thick layer. The lockers were by then melted mostly open, their contents half-burnt and now frozen. The lock itself was a frozen puddle of metal on the floor.

“Wow, I really need to stop making mystery spells. The mystery is always fire! It’s not a mystery if it’s always the same thing! It’s not like the only thing I think about is fire... Or even most of the time, really! And that was a lot stronger than I was expecting, too...”

Marco found himself staring at her. The mystery was  _ always _ fire?  _ Why? _

“But look! I can get into my locker now! No combo needed!”

Her weird power aura had calmed down again, at least.

“Star... you just destroyed both of our lockers, along with about ten others.” His tone felt weird, kind of flat. Felt kind of like he was floating again, dreamlike. A normal dream dreamlike. Not a magic dream, which felt way, way different. Magic dreams felt like clarity, for some reason.

Star had deflated, stopped moving around, and was staring at his shoes. She seemed for all the world like a normal human waiting for punishment for breaking a vase.

He was supposed to protect himself from her? Was he supposed to protect her from  _ herself _ ? He’d been chosen because he was the Safe Kid, and so obviously this was the kind of thing that he, some random Safe Human, could handle. Apparently.

What the hell were martial arts supposed to be able to do around someone who could accidentally burn him alive?

He just turned around and walked away. He couldn’t deal with this right now. What the hell had Blue and that Queen person gotten him into? She was going to be  _ living _ with him. His house wouldn’t last two days with someone like this.

He’d wanted danger, sometimes. Often, even.

“Wait! Don’t just leave me alone here! Please...”

He stopped moving. She didn’t sound like she were dangerous, even after it had poured off her just a moment ago.

She just sounded like a scared girl - she was in an entirely new place, after all, her guide abandoning her.

He was supposed to be her guide, at the very  _ least _ . Foreign exchange student. So what if she was more foreign than most?

(Her arm had accidentally warped from normality. She bled power unthinkingly. She had destroyed half a hallway by  _ accident _ .)

He turned back around anyway. She had an arm half-extended, which she quickly pulled back. She clasped her hands over her heart.

“I’m sorry I didn’t let you show me how it’s done on Earth. I didn’t mean to make such a mess...”

Marco looks at the lockers again. He’s not sure how to feel right now.

“You... definitely got into your locker, right? But that was... kinda scary, Star. If that had been pointed at me, or any other human, we would’ve died.”

Star’s eyes widen. “Just from that?”

He turns to stare at her in matched disbelief. “Uh, of course?? You wouldn’t die from that?”

“You guys must be pretty fragile. I could have tanked that like a champ, honestly. It didn’t have enough magic in it to hurt me seriously, just heat.”

“...Humans are as susceptible to heat as lockers are. Even more so, actually. I guess that’s from not having any magic, or whatever.”

Star was grimacing. “Why was I sent here, then? I’m supposed to be training here, but that mostly makes it sound like I shouldn’t be using magic at all. Things can get pretty weird around magic, and pretty wild too, and if you guys can’t handle that...”

“Blue said there was a stable time loop, and that my dimension depended on its completion. Sounds like it’s kinda weird and wild already.”

“Okay, but who’s Blue, and how did you meet him? Because I can only think of one blue guy you’re probably talking to, and if he’s who I think he is, you don’t wanna go around trusting everything he says. He gets cryptic. And possibly lies. Definitely omits things.”

“Wait, what?”

“Hold on. If I’m right, it’ll just be easier to show you.” Star reached into her pocket and pulls out a book far too large to fit in her dress, and thunked it on the ground. “Glossaryck. Come out and give your sage advice, or whatever. Marco here says I would’ve killed him with the spell I just used.”

The book opened by itself, pages flipping past, and when they stopped Blue was drawn sleeping in the margins of the page. He peeled himself off the page, yawning as he shifted from paper-thin flatness to dubiously glorious fullness.

It wasn’t a dream seeing Blue this time, and with that and the short distance Marco could see far more detail. He was still blue, but his legs had white stubble and he had extra fingers. His irises and pupils seemed to be diamond-shaped, and the magenta gem in his forehead shimmered as he moved. He seemed to be bigger now than in the dream, too, a full foot high.

“Oh, yeah, Princess is right on the money there, Princess. He would absolutely have died if he’d been in the way of that spell. There is  _ no _ doubt of that.”

Star looked over at Marco, eyes wide. “You’re a princess too? Is that why you’re showing me around?”

Marco just stared at her. This girl was just gonna keep surprising him, wasn’t she? At least that explained why a Queen was involved. “Noooo, he just. Likes to call me that for some reason. He won’t explain, either; I asked.”

“He’s right. I won’t. That IOU you have has fine print about revealing information mortal minds were not meant to know. Very important not to break your minds too early.” His smile was as Marco had seen it in the dreams - smug as hell and wider than the rest of his face.

“Whatever! What’s this about Marco dying? Why are humans so weak?”

“Hey!”

“Come on, one spell and you’ll go poof? Sounds weak to me.” She shrugs at him.

Blue blinks, urgent as a sloth. “It’s the consequences of living within so little magic for a lifetime. The Earth dimension is one of the most naturally magic-poor in the multiverse. It’s all this electromagnetism, definitely. Physics like that aren’t good for sentients, never have been.”

“But... we couldn’t exist without Earth physics. Any tiny change and we could never have developed, or something.”

“Don’t think about that too hard or you might think yourself into nonexistence too early.”

Marco relegated it to the back of his mind, where he put everything he couldn't think. It was always surprisingly cluttered back there, but there was always room for more.

“Haven’t you held hands or hugged or whatever you crazy kids get up to yet? Just do that, and you’ll understand faster. The difference between you will be obvious, especially if you exchange a little magic.”

“We only just met a little while ago, Glossaryck, I was being good. Gimme your hand, Marco, this is gonna be fun.” Star held out her hand to him.

He reached for it, tentatively. She seemed to fluctuate between pushing and pulling again, more evenly than before, except this time, Glossaryck was similarly powerful, ebbing and flowing on his own schedule. The two of them seemed solid enough that to try to move them would be impossible, more colorful and brighter than the world.

He clasped her hand - she let him move it? moved with him? - and his world changed.

She  _ was _ proof that magic existed, the realization slamming home with the feeling of her hand. The outside world, fell away to grayness, illusion, while touching something - someone - so vibrantly  _ real. _ She pressed strength and color and life into his skin the same way his dream had, except her hand radiated the same

**pleasure, joy**

her smile did.

Several tendrils of the power pressed into his palm, just barely breaking skin, and then he felt bursts of

**curiosity, uncertainty, eagerness, guilty pleasure**

as they slowly snaked their way up through his arm, curling against, around, between his bones, thrumming gently, stopping halfway up his upper arm. He wasn’t sure why she felt guilty, and hoped he was emitting the awe he was feeling.

Her tendrils ebbed and flowed with her energy in a way the dream magic hadn’t, often pulling gently, so gently - it felt like the tendrils faded into open spaces in his arm, areas of relaxation, calm emptiness, and he realized he could feel tendrils of himself extending, twining along them into her, to press - just barely - into her hand.

He could feel her guilt fading as they did, into

**happiness, affection**

and he tried helping his tendrils forward himself, willing them forward, but they didn’t seem to move more than a half-inch inside her before they started to feel oddly stretched.

He became aware of Glossaryck talking, but didn't bother to process the words. It was more interesting to focus on the emotions pulsing in his arm.

**slight interest, bored annoyance, fading**

The same happened with Star's words.

**carelessness, defiance, fierce enjoyment, fading**

Why were they talking so much when magic was alive in the world? In her, and through her, in him?

**annoyed resignation, expectation of loss, slowly fading**

He heard his name, and listened despite his preoccupation. “Marco, if you can hear me, I’m pulling back now.”

**loss nervousness worry gratitude** \- and then the emotions cut off. The sensation of tendrils faded more slowly, leaving space that was only his arm’s normal sensations. It felt like waking up to the world around him, or falling asleep as he lost his focus.

She had stopped being the only real thing in the room, but as he looked around the room he was surprised at how gray and paper-thin an illusion it all still seemed - but then that too changed, and the room faded back into what seemed like full existence.

She wasn't realer than everything else in the room anymore. She had been since he met her - was that really only a half hour ago? less? but she seemed to have settled such that she no longer projected herself into the world.

"You were right, Glossaryck. About how fast I would understand." Star seemed quiet now, calm, and she was staring at him. "I'm not here to train in magic at all, am I?"

"Okay, I was  _ talking _ about the princess being  _ delicate _ ..."He waited a moment, glancing over, but Marco didn't feel like engaging with any of that right now. "...Not whatever you're thinking of. The Queen said you were here to train, Star."

"For magic's sake, I'm eighteen! It's been months since a major mistake, and sending me here to train seems  _ absurd _ ! If I were still so bad at control or relaxing or whatever why  _ here _ where magic is so dangerous!?"

"As I've said before, Star, it's not control you need to learn but trust in -"

"Hey, guys can we save this fight for later? We don't want to be anywhere near these lockers when people see them. People are gonna be  _ pissed _ ."

Glossaryck and the book disappeared somewhere. Good. He started walking, motioning for Star. Ten minutes and they'd be free of any sudden crowds. They should make it home easy.

Star wiggled her eyebrows after she caught up. "What happened to being a misunderstood bad boy?"

Marco wavered... settled. "Not that misunderstood. Too much stuff like that and we'd end up with a record. Nooooo, thank you." A record would be  _ permanent _ . That could affect his future!

Star pointed a finger at his face. "Hah! A record is an important part of being a misunderstood bad boy, and you're just throwing one away. I dub thee... Safe Kid!"

"Pshhh, we'll get plenty of opportunities for upping my rep. Just watch."

She smirked at him. "I'll bet you've been saying that for years, mister. I'm a bonafide misunderstood bad girl, and lemme tell you, it ain't gonna happen on it's own, but  _ you _ don't take risks."

Marco rolled his eyes. "Suuuuure, whatever. How could you even know that?"

"I'll tell you later~"

"Why not now?"

"'Cause we gotta talk about magiiiiic~"

"But why not now?"

"Because Glossaryck is going to chew me out for this and I wanna wait. It didn't exactly go according to plan."

"Really? It seemed to. We learned what we were supposed to, right?"

"What did  _ we _ learn, then, exactly?"

Marco hesitated. "I learned, or got proof for, magic being both real and important. Even the spell you used in front of me hadn't been enough to show me how different the world is from what I thought. 

"I guess I don't know for sure what you learned, except what you said about not being here for training. But you've stopped being more real than everything else afterwards, which seems relevant, and the original thing you were supposed to learn was how easy it would be for you to kill humans. We should talk about that..."

"All of that and more. You need context for most of this, and I'm probably not the best one to teach it. Supposedly I don't pay attention, pbbbbbbt. For now, I'll ask you: why do you keep saying we? We met each other a half hour ago."

"Well, because... We're a we, aren't we? I mean, we... You and I - what?"

"You've been making plans as if we were a unit. It's an effect of what we did, something we weren't originally planning on."

"...Is that what the guilt and worry were about?"

Star laughed, the tone high-pitched with nerves. "Yeah, basically. I kinda mess things up. Sometimes. A lot. But this probably won't have long term consequences for you."

"Wait, so this messed with our minds somehow? Er, my mind?"

Star nodded, fidgeting with the hem of her dress. "You more than me. That whole thing was mostly unexpected."

"Mostly? Hold on, what did you even do to me?"

"I mean, the shared emotions were expected - that was why I knew it'd be fun! But it went a little further than we planned, because... of reasons hard to explain. And now we're going to get a lecture, because they lecture! Every! Time! That I mess up."

Marco's mouth dropped open in horror. "Was that magical sex or something!? Did you have sex with me just now??"

Star giggled, her nerves apparently easing. She stuck her tongue out at him for a second, and started bouncing around, lively again. "No, silly, you'd  _ know _ if we had magical sex. Trust me, you couldn't mistake that for anything else. That was more like... we cuddled a bunch? Not always sexual, but that was suuuuper forward when we've only just met. Well, for mewmans. Not everyone has the same hangups as my mom, but most of our subjects seem to."

"For mewmans? Is it a species thing?"

"More like... culture, but for mewmanity yeah. Glossy said Earth has lots of cultures with different attitudes about touching and sex and a bunch of stuff, and I should be careful not to overstep, but then he goes and tells us to share magic! And it was fine! You've already stopped saying we, even."

"...Huh. I guess I have, actually."

"See! It doesn't have to be a big deal, but if  _ Mom _ finds out it's gonna be this federal fucking  _ issue. _ " She kicked a rock along the path.

"Well, hey. You're on Earth right now, and when on Earth, do as Earthlings do! We can figure out what that means for us as we go."

"Thanks, Marco."

"Y'know what? I can work with this!"

Standing in the room she was to live in, she closed her eyes, spun around, brightening for the briefest moment -

"Sparkle Glitter Bomb Expand!"

The flooring shifted wildly under his feet as the space widened, soon spanning several times the size with multiple floors. The room took on mostly soft shades of yellow and pink. The bed itself expanded to the size of his own room, with turquoise added into its colors, pillows and stuffed animals sprouting from nowhere along with a canopy of thin pink fabric, pulled back. He could even see a small flock of shimmering butterflies fluttering around on the top floor. It all had a gentle sheen of magic, which presumably explained his house still standing.

Marco's mouth gaped open. "Wowwww, I wish I had a room like this..."

Star looked thrilled. "Right!? Don't worry, we can do that! Just gimme a moment, I need to make sure the mirror is hooked up." She hummed happily as she pulled back a set of curtains on the wall, tapping along its side. "Mirror registration: Star Butterfly, Princess of Mewni, location Earth," she enunciated.

A pixie - another room entirely - appeared in the mirror. "Connection established, Star Butterfly. Please contact the mirror to prove identity."

She placed her hand flat onto the mirror as Marco watched. "So you guys use mirrors as phones?"

She turned to smirk at him. "You saying you guys use phones as mirrors?"

"Okay, good point." Looked like his phone wouldn't be as impressive as he'd thought.

"Mirror registered and synced. Enjoy your mirror, Star Butterfly." The image winked out into a normal reflection.

"Alright then! You said you wanted a cool new Star-style room! Lemme at it!" She was twirling her wand, tossing it up and down.

"Mine's just outside and to the left. Could it have purple instead of yellow, by the way? ...Oh, and -"

But she was gone already. "Sparkle Glitter Bomb Expand!"

Damn, her voice could carry. He rushed out to see what the room looked like.

He couldn't help but think it was... beautiful. Purple was the background color, but there were large pink flowers blooming on the walls, breaking up any monotony - they were detailed enough to look almost real. The bed was pink and purple fading into blue, with the same pink canopy.

The room was so  _ feminine _ , with the pink colors and the light fluttery cloth hanging around the walls - well, he did ask for a room like hers. Nothing wrong with a little femininity in this day and age, right? He had the ballet shoes to prove it.

Star was now jumping on the bed, grinning wildly, and clearly proud of the results.

"This is awesome, thank you so much. I really like it."

"Whooo!" She lands next to him, tripping into his arms as she lands, and he catches her without quite tipping over. She's warm and solid against him, and he squeezes her, relishing the closeness more than he expected.

...He's remembering the magical cuddling thing, now. He kind of wanted to do that again, but that seemed like a bad idea. It would be weird to ask for that, right? It had seemed like an accident, and he needed more information anyway, so he pulled away.

"So. We have things to talk about?"

Star started to chew on the end of her wand, speaking around it somehow. "Yeah, we do. Glossy, come out again? This'll be easier if you help me remember what I need to go over."

Glossaryck did not show up. Star rolled her eyes. "Fine. Marco, do you have questions? I need  _ something _ to start this."

"Okay, how about: Why did you feel guilty? You said the side effects were part of it, but what was the rest?"

"Right... so, we were supposed to feel each other's magic, plus sharing a small amount. Touching hands, not cuddling. But then our magics were unbalanced in opposite ways..."

"So you felt guilty because... what?"

"You didn't know what would happen, or what it meant. It wasn't supposed to happen." She was looking down, fidgeting with her wand.

"Well, it sounds like Blue wasn't expecting it either, or didn't warn you, so it's probably not your fault, y'know? Plus, no harm, no foul."

"It was  _ great _ , especially once I could feel you responding. You're pretty open to magic stuff, huh?"

"Eh....... It's kind of... scary that you could kill me by accident. But that part felt like the dream I had this morning, except I could feel your emotions, too, and your magic pulsed. Uh, my point is it wasn't  _ entirely _ new to me."

Star leaned forward, eyes wide. "You had a magic dream?"

"Uh... yeah. When Blue left, this weird liquid light exploded from there and wrapped around me. It kept getting stronger and brighter and radiated energy into me until I woke up entirely."

"Well, that makes sense. You said it didn't pulse, right?"

"No. Was it supposed to?"

"Nnnnnnnno? Ugh, I don't know how to explain this. Okay. So magic has two parts to it, usually. They're supposed to be in balance, and when they aren't in balance, things don't work quite right. That dream was magic, or maybe Glossaryck, partially correcting your imbalance, because you're getting enough magic for it to matter. Or maybe because of what was going to happen today, especially if Glossy did it."

"So what happened today could have gone worse, if that hadn't happened?"

"Yyyyyeah. Sort of. Our magics wanted to balance out in each other, because I'm unbalanced in the opposite way. When both are balanced, or unbalanced in the same way, it's more of an exchange of both kinds, but that was a lot like you getting my excess of the light type, and me getting some of the darkness type you have an excess of. Except I'm not explaining this right."

"So they're light and dark types?"

"They're a lot of things, honestly. Light and dark, matter and space, birth and death, growth and decay, creation and destruction. Together, they are the source of everything! Every universe is born of and dies into magic."

This was... a lot of info to take in. Blue definitely hadn't said any of this in the dreams. Bastard.

"You said you knew I didn't take risks, and that you'd tell me why during the magic talk. What was that about?"

"You're unbalanced towards - space, this time. You have space in your mind to think, all the time, to make plans and get ideas. But you don't have as much energy that would signify you often take action the way I do. I forget to look before I leap. You usually look so long you don't leap at all."

Marco stared at his hands, and they were both silent for a moment.

"I leapt today, though."

"You did. This isn't fate, it's choice. It's the results of your choices. You can leap anytime you want."

Marco stared at her right hand, now, remembering how it had felt when he had  _ leapt _ .

The vulnerability of choosing to trust - the life radiating off her, energizing whatever came into contact - the intimacy of her magic curling around his bones - the surges of her emotions streaming into him - the pulsing acceptance that his magic had responded to.

He set it aside. Not the time.

"Blue said something about... protecting you. He said the Queen chose this dimension, chose  _ me _ , although a lot of it was apparently the right place, right time, and a time loop or something."

"I'm important, and I have enemies. Are you going to be okay with that?"

"Star, I'm just one person. I might know karate, but that doesn't look like it can do much. I don't know if it's a good idea to rely on me for...  _ anything _ that you couldn't handle alone."

"No, I don't mean... Marco, ignore what the Queen thinks. I don't need a protector; I can take care of myself. But... I do want a friend here, even more than a guide, and I want to be  _ your _ friend." She held out a hand, which he took automatically. Her eyes were so  _ soft. _ "I can protect you if you need it, but there will still be danger that you need to accept, and maybe protect yourself from, if we're going to be friends. Are you okay with danger?" Her thumb rubbed over his hand.

...Marco was  _ conflicted _ .

She'd been right, earlier, if he was actually honest with himself. He stayed safe, didn't search out danger. He was worrying about his safety just seconds ago. He looked, so much that he often didn't leap. He  _ always _ acted as the Safe Kid, whether he wanted to be or not. He could feel part of himself wanting to say no automatically, to pull away and make excuses. To cocoon and protect himself from the girl who could  _ burn him alive _ , from the world she would bring with her, even when in this moment she was just a girl who wanted a friend.

But he didn't  _ want _ to be that, not fully. He wanted to choose who he was, make his own image, his own life. He didn't want to be the Safe Kid, as if that were all he was. But... part of him was. He had to be honest with himself, whenever he could be. It had taken him years to come to terms with the knowledge of what he was, to accept that part of himself.

But anyone could become a different person than they were, or thought they were. People could change. He wasn't  _ fated _ to be Safe, nor even to want to be safe. It was a choice, and he could make other choices.

He could leap anytime he wanted.

He looked at his hands, callused with his efforts in karate. He looked at her hand, still holding his, soft and warm and no realer than his own, at the moment. He looked back to the hope shining in Star's eyes. "I want to face danger. I want to know about magic. I want to be  _ your _ friend, too. If I'm not strong enough for that, then you can protect me until I am, I guess."

Star's smile widened, a little shaky. "Sounds great to me. Hugs?"

"Y-yeah, hugs are always gr--" She pounced on him again, toppling him easily. Was this going to be a regular thing? He kinda hoped so. He could feel her pressing him down, her breath hot against his neck, and he closed his eyes against the hair sweeping over his face. His arms came up to wrap around her as he tried to convey the same warmth she perpetually exuded. By her contented sigh, he must have gotten partially there.

Cool new room. Cool (scary) new friend. A friend who liked hugs! And a decision to move towards who he wanted to be. Life was actually going pretty great, crazy danger or not.

**Author's Note:**

> The first chapters of a long au. theoretically. writing is hard :/
> 
> I'd enjoy reading these chapters alone so I'm posting 'em anyway
> 
> sorry about no summary but i can't do it rn ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> I just learned on AO3 it's supposed to be polite not to offer criticism unless it's asked for so this is me saying criticism is totally kosher


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